“[…] the effect of sunshine on one nonverbal expression that facilitates social relationships (namely, smiling) has never been studied.”
Until now, that is. A new paper from professor Nicolas Guéguen at the Université de Bretagne-Sud, France describes a ‘Quasi Experiment’.
“In a field experiment, men and women walking alone in the street were passed by a male or a female confederate who displayed a smile to the passersby. The contagion effect of smiling was measured. The study was carried out on days that were evaluated as being either sunny or cloudy, but precaution was taken to control the temperature and not to solicit participants when it rained. It was found that the display of a smile results in a smile more often on sunny days. The positive mood induced by the sun may explain such results.”
The paper : Weather and Smiling Contagion: A Quasi Experiment with the Smiling Sunshine is published in the Journal of Nonverbal Behavior March 2013, Volume 37, Issue 1, pp 51-55
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